It's About Time!

Daddy and Mommy have been trying to get Delenn to sleep better for
months and months now. During the first half the night, Daddy has been
in the room with her trying to settle her and get her back to sleep.
Every night, there came a point where Delenn just wouldn't go back
down.. Daddy would let her cry a 1/2 hour, an hour or sometimes more.
But she clued in that eventually Mommy would come with that
oh-so-desired milk. Getting Delenn to sleep through the night with the
system we had going clearly wasn't going to work. So, this weekend it
was time for a change. Both Mommy and Daddy felt like zombies and
couldn't continue being so sleep deprived with Delenn's long crying bout
every night. She was up twice a night, sometimes three times. At
sixteen months, she needs to learn to sleep through and go without a
good feed..

We threw everything we'd ever read out the window and tried a new
tactic. When she woke up and wanted a feed, Mommy was there in the room
and talked to her. She told her that "Mommy's milk had gone night
night." Mommy held her, rocked her, comforted her, but did not let
Delenn have a feed. Mommy kept talking to her -- about how she must
feel sad, asking her if she wanted milk in a cup or a banana or a
cracker. After about an hour maybe more (on Friday night) she signed
that she wanted milk (ie cow's milk) and a cracker. She ate a bite, had
some (cow's) milk and water and finally after another half hour or more
went back to bed. Mommy had to do that again later that night (twice I
think). Again Mommy held her, nestled Delenn to her and talked to her.
Everything we had read said not to talk to your babies at night -- but
this new tactic really seemed to work.

Saturday night was better (though she was up three times). She seemed
to understand that Mommy's milk truly wasn't available. Though she cried
quite a bit, it wasn't as long or as confusing for Delenn.

Last night (Sunday night) - Mommy didn't even need to pick her up
(though she did talk to her to tell her that Mommy's milk went night
night and to say night night to Delenn). Mommy also had to pick up the
teddy bears Delenn had thrown (in frustration), but once Mommy handed
them back to her, Delenn plopped down into bed and went back to sleep.

We are SO hopeful that she'll now clue in that she needs to go back to
sleep on her own. Perhaps it was feasible to do this because she's so
much older and really understands what we say -- but it sure went
against our previous notion about not talking to the kids at night.